Note to self: Deleting “Ghost Objects” from the Metaverse

Some of you may have run into an issue with what I like to call “ghost data”. Ghost objects are essentially fragments or artifacts left over in the metaverse when a deletion should have occurred but, for one reason or another, didn’t and are left as such in a
state of limbo. Before we can understand how to deal with them, let us first discuss what these objects really are and how they might have come to be.

Most commonly, these objects were probably created when an object (typically a user) gets deleted in the portal, but a corresponding object deletion rule has not been configured in the metaverse designer. Since this object deletion rule (and usually configured deprovisioning on the target management agents) does not exist, the object gets deleted in the portal and then, on import and sync, brought into the FIMMA connector space. Once there, however, it fails to be purged from the metaverse (and, as a result, the other MA connector spaces). For example, the object deletion rule may be configured as such: